Contingency Plans
by freifraufischer
Summary: Outlaw Queen. Minific. Regina gives Robin money and maps as they both (don't) come to terms with never seeing each other again.


_A/N: Written as a tumblr prompt: in the finale (4.11) before they go to the town line the moment in which Robin realized he really had to leave, when regina gives him the map and the money and then tells him to meet at the town line._

* * *

"It's getting cold and Marian's clothes really aren't going to keep her warm. I was going to say something this afternoon about taking her shopping." Regina said absently. Will had taken Marian out to the camp so they could gather the family's things, and Regina and Robin had gone to her house so that she could set them up. "She's a little taller than I am, but I think I have a winter coat she can have..."

She'd told Robin to sit on the bed while she gathered what he'd need, but he was pacing. She could hear him, his heavy boots against the carpeted floor.

"Regina, maybe we could do what we did before..."

"We can't. The curse progressed too far. The only way to save her is to get her away from magic."

"What about this spell on the town line...?"

"It's not the first town line spell. To be honest I suspect that it's something in the nature of the magical bubble we live in. Across the line is a world where the rules of magic if they work at all, work very differently. The boundary is always going to be a weak point."

She was thinking about the magical theory behind what she was saying, rather than the desperation in his voice. She was trying to shut it out of her own mind too. "I have everything already made up that you should need."

She came out of her closet with the coat that she lay on the bed. She wasn't sure how much Marian would appreciate it but she thought she rather owed the woman that. She was after all going out into the world in the prison sack that had come from her dungeons.

"Regina, please look at me."

"I ... really can't." She managed as she walked right past him to a mirror on the wall. Always mirrors. She looked in it and gasped a little as she saw his expression behind her. Not enough time. They didn't have enough time or Marian would be dead. She inhaled and pulled the mirror away from the wall to reveal a safe."

"What's in there...?"

"I knew Rumple had set a break into the curse. All curses have one. I just knew as soon as the town found out they'd come for me so planned ahead."

"As you do."

"I had escape plans in case of a coup in the Enchanted Forest too."

"Which you never used."

"Self preservation has never been my strongest suit. And besides, the Charmings didn't come for me in my home they caught me on the battlefield." She gave a self deprecating smile. "I was trying to personally kill Snow White."

Robin smiled. "As you would. You know, if you were her."

Her. They'd started talking about the Evil Queen as if she was someone else. A pang struck in her heart. "More like if you are me." She pulled a small bag out of the safe, along with a stack of maps and some legal paperwork. "There should be enough cash for you to get started, and maps of New England. The Maine one is on top. If you make it to New York there is the deeds to an apartment I bought there. Emma used it for a year so only god knows if it won't be trashed. I gave her memories of how to cook but she might have set the entire building on fire trying to make toast..."

"Regina... I'm leaving."

"Yes, I know, I told you."

"And you just keep talking."

"I have to."

"No ... you don't."

He took his hands and put them on either side of her face.

"I have to push through so I don't have time to think about what I want, Robin."

"You have a right to think about what you want."

"No. No I don't. What I want is wrong. The thoughts I am having are wrong. And I don't want to be the person who has those thoughts but I am."

"Regina, you are the person who has those thoughts and says no." He smiled at her. "It's a lot harder to be a good woman knowing you could be bad ..."

"Don't give me a speech about how good a woman I am when I'm giving you my escape plans for when the lynch mob came for me."

"You are giving them to me because you don't need them anymore."

He touched his forehead to hers and she had to keep back the tears. She wasn't going to cry. Not until they were gone.

"I chose you."

"Not that it matters," she said bitterly.

"It matters." He repeated firmly. "I love you."

"You have to go."

"I know."

She wanted to collapse into his arms. But like so many times in her life where she wanted to fall down and she couldn't allow herself, she just kept moving.

"We need to get you to the town line. Marian doesn't have much time." She took his hands and removed them from her face herself.

"Yes... yes of course."


End file.
